One day a man was walking along the beach. He noticed that during the night many starfish had washed up on the shore. Far off in the distance he saw a figure dancing. As he drew closer he noticed that it was not someone dancing but a small child methodically picking up starfish and tossing them back into the sea. The man, puzzled, asked, "Why are you throwing those starfish?". "If I leave them the sun will dry them and they will die, so I'm throwing them back into the sea because I want them to live!" she replied. He was impressed with the child's thoughtfulness, but said, "There are millions of them, how could you possibly expect to make a difference?". The small child pondered the man's words for a moment then picked up a starfish and threw it into the sea. "You might be right, " she said, smiling, "but I made a difference to that one!"
After being at GBNZ Conference at Hunua this weekend, the thought occurs to me that sometime we can be overwhelmed by the politics, the business, the management etc. that is involved with running an organisation, and we may ask ourselves "Why do I do this, what is the point, what difference am I making, is it just too hard?". And that is where I remember this story; every girl we reach is worth every bit of our energy and time. I once was one of those girls, and the leaders that I had while growing up helped make me the person I am today. So for all girls out there I say to you, do not feel overwhelmed, you are doing a fabulous job and all girls NZ wide need awesome leaders and role models like yourselves. In the words of Joanna (IFG) and Outward Bound, "Be your best self".
No comments:
Post a Comment